Climate Point: Global warming? We're over it. And Wild West water woes

Welcome to Climate Point, your weekly guide to climate change, energy and the environment. I'm Janet Wilson, writing to you from sunny Palm Springs — which is ringed by emerald-green golf courses in the desert that are watered from the shriveled Colorado River and dwindling groundwater. That hardy human capacity to block out reality is on display elsewhere this week too.

First off, scientists are now 99.99 percent sure we're causing global warming, as Doyle Rice reports for USA TODAY. And that's causing more extreme weather, including wetter storms, longer droughts, hotter heat spells and deeper freezes. But guess what? Because we're only human, we're actually getting used to weird weather. That's right, as Rice writes, like the proverbial toad in the pot, researchers say we're sitting tight as Earth's atmosphere boils over with our pollutants.

Perhaps that's why thousands of northern Californians are refusing to evacuate and get out of the way of the storm-swollen, rapidly rising Russian River. Hey, good chance to use that canoe in the garage, right?

Here are some other things you might want to know:

MUST READ STORIES

LA to farm folks: game over. The mighty Metropolitan Water District of Southern California tells me in the Desert Sun that since the Imperial Irrigation District, which grows a healthy slice of the nation's winter groceries, won't sign on to a Colorado River drought plan, they'll kick in the water instead. IID is willing to do their part, but first wants $200 million to clean up the Salton Sea, California's largest lake. Met says there's no time for that, and they can contribute because of this year's healthy snowpack. The fight continues.

And as Ian James with the Arizona Republic writes, it would take multiple years of heavy snow to erase the effects of over-allocation (a round of golf anyone?) and historic drought across the river basin. 

ENERGY CLEAN AND DIRTY

Good day sunshine. San Bernardino County, California's largest, may ban any new solar farms near residential areas. As Sammy Roth writes for the Los Angeles Times, that would be a relief for homeowners, many of whom say they like capturing the sun's rays for energy, but prefer to install rooftop systems rather than having their views marred by huge infrastructure. 

Yup, we did it-probably. Pacific Gas & Electric Co. admits its equipment likely sparked the deadly Camp Fire last fall, as David Benda and Michele Chandler report for the Redding Record Searchlight. The company expects at least $10.5 billion in charges as a result, and has already filed for bankruptcy protection. The Camp Fire, the deadliest in California history, killed 86 people, destroyed 14,000 homes and was the world's costliest natural disaster in 2018.

POLITICAL CLIMATE

Power play. Former energy lobbyist Andrew Wheeler was narrowly confirmed by the U.S. Senate to lead the Environmental Protection Agency. While leading President Donald Trump's agenda to deregulate many industries, Wheeler also has emphasized the agency's work to clean up Superfund sites and, for the first time, and begun regulating a set of harmful chemicals known as PFAS found in drinking water systems that serve millions of Americans. Ledyard King with USA TODAY fills us in.

What about us? Speaking of PFAS, Michigan has at least six military bases contaminated with "forever chemicals," which have leached into surrounding communities. But as Keith Matheny outlines in the Detroit Free Press, that wasn't enough for Michigan to make the cut in a new federal study looking at human exposure impacts for those living near contaminated military sites. Communities in West Virginia, Colorado, Alaska, Massachusetts, Texas, New York and Washington state were picked.

Something for everyone. A mammoth, bipartisan package to protect 2 million acres of public lands and historic sites has sailed through Congress and awaits Pres. Trump's signature (though it could easily survive a veto), as King reports. Most of the lands are out West, including 716,000 acres of California desert, as I write, with areas for off-roading, hiking, hunting and more. 

AND ANOTHER THING

A new low. Plastics are now present in the deepest ocean trenches on Earth, at shockingly high rates, as Ed Yong chronicles for the Atlantic magazine. The world produces an estimated 10 tons of plastic a second, and about 5 trillion pieces currently float on ocean waters, mostly in easy-to-swallow bits that end up in albatrosses, sea turtles and whales. But they also sink. Researchers found plastic fibers in 72 percent of the tiny crustaceans that they collected. In the 6.8-mile-deep Mariana Trench, the lowest point in any ocean, all of the specimens had plastic in their gut.

Here's this week's carbon dioxide count. Still climbing. Does it feel warm in here?

That's all for this week. For more climate, energy and environment news, follow me on Twitter @janetwilson66. You can sign up to get Climate Point in your inbox for free here